An incredible image--that doesn't give away how campy the flick actually is.
A classic! (Although the poster is a little busy, but that in itself is highly representative of the time...)
Oh yeah, I need to see this flick toot sweet!
Jack Davis perfectly captures, and enhances what this classic is all about.
Haven't seen this flick; would like to; and need to post something to keep the "Zexy Replikantz" fans happy....
When this was originally released, I saw this in the theater (the old Georgetown Twin in Brooklyn), twice! For fans of 1970s dystopic future flicks like Soylent Green or The Omega Man/
Chosen Survivors is worth a look.
Boobies! (And a great piece of cinema from good old Otto Preminger.)
A childhood favorite--the poster and the ad campaign on TV, that is. When we finally got around to seeing The Legend of Boggy Creek (at the Tannersville movie theater in upstate NY), well...I learned a lesson, that's all.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen any of these flicks--they're the type of movies that probably had lots of different titles over the years... But I've loved this poster since I was a kid, and saw it advertised in the late, great and lamented The Monster Times.
Gotta love Oliver Reed! (And Sitting Target is highly recommended!)
Thanks for the recommendos! I'm gonna check out Sitting Target and Chosen Survivors. While researching the latter I found reference to The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) - have you seen it?
ReplyDeleteBeen meaning to get your take on the new Rise of the Planet of the Apes (which was pretty much a "reboot" of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, my least favorite Apes movie not directed by Tim Burton). The first time I watched Rise I enjoyed it... saw it again recently, and it really does hold up. The cgi is done well (except for some occasionally too-graceful monkey acrobatics) and the script is solidly elegant. It's not just a spectacular turdfest of special efx; there's a good story, and most of its technical manipulations help to serve that story.
I know this seems to negate much of the bitching I've been doing about Hollywood remakes, but not really, since they picked the crappiest movie of the original franchise and improved everything about it, instead of pointlessly modernizing a classic. Anyway, worth a look if you've been avoiding it.
Miles to go before I sleep.
Agent Dalchimsky:
ReplyDeleteI think that you would greatly enjoy Sitting Target--its nasty, early-70s vibe is "up your alley," as they say in the Soviet Navy. It reminded me of the movie Michael Winner never got around to making--and I mean that as a compliment!
Chosen Survivors is not essential viewing, but if you're a "completist" of Earth After Disaster Flicks, it's worth a look. And c'mon, who can turn down nuclear war and vampire bats? AND Richard Jaekel? Bestill my heart...
As for "Total Monkey War," I dug it. Screened as a bootleg months ago, I've been sitting on a pile of notes and jpegs, trying to work it into some sort of shape, and letting myself get distracted. That said, I would tend to agree with you but only because I really, REALLY enjoyed the final APE RAMPAGE (you can't spell "rampage" without an "ape" somewhere in there, tee-hee), and I grant myself the blindness of ignoring script flaws like the fact that ape medical experts couldn't tell that their star pupil, "Bright Eyes" (nice callback to the original POTA, IMHO), was PREGNANT!(?!?) And I don't think there are that many primates on the western coast of North America let alone in the SF area, but like I said, that finale ruled! Stride on, oh mighty and noble Primate, and CRUSH the hairless foe! I think I rewound and rewatched the ending about three times.
(Jeez, this "comment" (as they say in the Soviet Navy) is longer than some--most--of my posts. Yeeeeesh....)
FREE HAL RAGLAN!
--Ivan, y'know, that guy...
And, no, I still haven't seen The Earth Dies Screaming. From what I've read about the movie, it's not that great. I should make up my own mind, I know, but there's no rush. Besides, the movie gave Tom Waits the title (and half the lyrics) for a good song.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Rise is not perfect, but I was able to suspend disbelief for what's necessary (not sure why intelligent apes would gain the ability to make 40-foot leaps onto concrete, for example). But I'm a sucker for the monkey drama. Though it paid off in revolutionary action, I was more impressed by Caesar's character and how he becomes torn between two species, making that war inevitable. Extra kudos for the fact that the central character is basically the product of a bunch of computer graphics people painting over Andy Serkis's face and body.
ReplyDeleteI will watch The Earth Dies Screaming, even though I am a bit biased against British sci-fi/horror from that era. There are a lot of dry, boring ones. It's nice when you get a surprise in the bottom of the box, though.
Oh yeah, the SPFX were top-notch ("Ehhh, I *smell* an Os-CAR!") and this flick is one of the few time that the "insanely mobile camera" that swoops and zooms and swirls everywhere (it's de riguer w/ all CGI flicks these days) does NOT feel out of place--b/c it's w/the Apes, leaping from tree to tree with them and enjoying their freedom.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I actually like the original Conquest of the POTA quite a bit--I'm referring to the extra-crispy super-revolutionary version recently unleashed from 20th Century Fox vaults--it's like a weird sci-fi Battle of Algiers--I'm NOT kidding, man! The gaps in Conquest's plot and actions is to me more like a quasi-documentary than bad filmmaking. I've always enjoyed Conquest's "burn 'em down" ending, but the "unedited" version is even tastier.